Long gone are the ‘paint jobs’ on race cars. These days it’s all about the wrap. It allows more flexibility and pace around changing livery when we need to without the intensive prep work that goes into the pre-paint process.
A livery defines a Supercar and there are many that go down in history as defining a race or even an era of racing.
Performance is primary but aesthetic takes the Supercars that one step further. Hence why it was important to Matt Stone Racing to enlist a vehicle wrapper who possessed values we as a team believed in. Enter SS Signs. A Brisbane based signage company who’s mantra is “you are number one, and that’s why we’re number one.” Since 1972 they’ve evolved from billboards and static signs to the wide world of digital and illuminated signage today on a variety of applications. Their vehicle wrapping is just one of the many talents their team cover.
SS Signs General Manager Rob Sharp is positive about becoming MSR’s official Signage Partner for 2019, 2020 and beyond. “We can see the Matt Stone Racing team developing into a top Supercar team and we want to be a part of that next step and development of this great team. The culture at MSR is also a perfect alignment with the culture at SS Signs. All of our team have been working really well with the MSR Team.”
SS Signs were put to the test straight away. The pressure was on MSR crew to get three cars ready in such a tight turn around before Bathurst and then we threw SS Signs crew into the mix. Both teams working around each other and the cars in the workshop was great to see. They delivered beyond expectations by presenting us with three incredible liveries – the striking flame orange Sherrin Rentals Car 33 driven by David Russell in Super2 and Todd Hazelwood’s SBR x SP Tools 2012 retro livery ZB with a touching tribute. Then there’s the feature car in this release – Ash Walsh’s Super2 VF Commodore. The matte black and bold colourway looks fierce up close and on screen, which is important when following them around the track.
MSR’s commercial consultant Al Bye has worked with them over the past 15 years and “they really do operate at the highest levels of team work and precision. They have only one standard. Properly or not at all. Failure is not an option for SS Signs or MSR. Our rise to the top of Supercars will be supported with SS Signs as our key team partner.”
Team Principal, Matt Stone agrees ”it’s great to have SS Signs come on board with Matt Stone Racing as our official signage partner. We know this relationship will be able to massively improve the presentation of all our race cars across categories and help our brands grow together.”
The Bathurst 1000 round will feature many striking liveries and the wrap game is getting more creative with various aesthetic elements and advancing wrap technologies.
Todd Hazelwood’s ‘silver bullet’ look will be retired as will his tribute SP Tools livery post Bathurst.
One of many reasons to take notice of Matt Stone racing liveries as the three entries lap around Mt Panorama in both Super 2 and Supercars this weekend.
